(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transportable three-dimensional calibration wind tunnel system having a wind tunnel function, a verification method of flight control system of an aircraft using said transportable three-dimensional calibration wind tunnel system, particularly an air active control aircraft which corresponds to the disturbance detection (hereinafter merely referred to as an air active control aircraft), and a flight simulator using said transportable three-dimensional calibration wind tunnel system.
(2) Description of Related Art
Conventionally, as a system for evaluating various aerodynamical characteristics and for testing and verifying air meters and the strength of members in the development of aircraft, a wind tunnel is considered. The conventional wind tunnel is a large fixed facility. An article to be tested is placed within a measuring portion of the wind tunnel to perform the air test. Therefore, if the article to be tested is large, for example, such as an aircraft, the test can be made using only a scale model. Accordingly, for example, a Pitot or the like is mounted on a real airframe, in which state the air characteristics cannot be verified. Further, what sensor signal with respect to the change in air the Pitot generates, and how the sensor signal is transmitted to a control system within the airframe are impossible to verify without the real flight test utilizing a real airframe.
On the other hand, a flight simulator is used for training for the control by a pilot of an aircraft or training for the operation of the system by a flight engineer. In the conventional flight simulator, in the training situations the atmospheric conditions, such as for example, the atmospheric pressure, wind direction, wind speed and so on, and the flight conditions, such as the altitude, velocity, position, attitude and so on, are predetermined or these conditions are suitably set from an instructor's operation panel whereby a motion simulation apparatus, a control loading simulation apparatus and a visual simulation apparatus are actuated in accordance with the program from the operational situations by the operation of control to conduct the training by way of simulation feeling. Accordingly, all the conventional flight simulations are based on the predetermined data set. For example, the motion of an aircraft resulting from the actual change in air, which changes every second, cannot be simulated.
Moreover, in the conventional flight simulator, the atmospheric data are set by forming the atmospheric data into a numerical model. However, it is difficult to completely form the actual atmosphere into a numerical model, and therefore there is a difference from the actual atmospheric conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to reproduce the same conditions as the actual atmospheric disturbances, for example, such as a gust of wind, a windshear or the like. Accordingly, it has been insufficient for training a pilot to maintain stabilized flight in the event of being caught in the atmospheric disturbance as described.
On the other hand, with the recent advancement of a computer and control technology, there has been advanced by various countries research and development for an active control aircraft for positively controlling flight by way of a computer control with respect to the change in air in order to improve the safety and the comfortableness of the ride in the aircraft. Preferably, the verification of the control system in the actual flight of the air active control aircraft is accomplished by actually driving the airframe and generating a sensor signal with respect to the atmospheric change. In the case of an extremely small airframe, this can be done even by the conventional wind tunnel test but cannot be done in case of a real airframe. Further, actual flight evaluations cannot be made with the current state of research and development.
In view of foregoing, a system for performing the verification of a control system by sending a simulated electrical signal to the control system in place of a real sensor signal is generally employed. This system can suitably generate a signal although the system has a problem in that if is difficult to cope with a signal different in properties from the real sensor signal, a time lag and so on, thus being unsatisfactory as the verification system.
Further, the air active control aircraft presently under development is directed toward detecting the motion state of the aircraft resulting from the change in air characteristics and to optimally control the control surface and the engine thrust by means of a computer on the basis of the detected results. Therefore, there occurs a time lag between a change in aerodynamic force and a control of the airframe motion. Accordingly, it is impossible to detect the change in aerodynamic force due to the sudden occurrence of the air disturbance to perform the flight stabilization control which corresponds to the disturbance detection (hereinafter merely referred to as the flight stabilization control) before the airframe is affected thereby.
One of the reasons why the flight control cannot be made at the real time in response to the change in air characteristics is that aero meters which are loaded on the real airframe to positively measure the change in air characteristics during the flight have not yet been developed.
Therefore, in the past, in the control of taking off and landing, a pilot receives air information from a control tower to control the aircraft. However, control with a slight delay with respect to a crosswind, a gust of wind or windshear occurring suddenly sometimes leads to trouble. Therefore, it is necessary that the aircraft obtain the air flight vector with respect to the change in air characteristics in a real time, and to take it into the control system so that the flight motion caused by the change in air characteristics is accurately predicted to produce a control law for a fast-response air flight balance control.
The present inventors have previously proposed a truncated pyramid-shape Pitot probe capable of detecting an air velocity vector during the flying with a single probe and an air flight velocity vector measuring apparatus using the probe (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,209).
This invention solves the aforementioned problems encountered in the development of an air active control aircraft making use of the above-described truncated pyramid-shape Pitot probe and the air flight velocity vector measuring apparatus using the probe.